Syntactic and semantic features of the liking verb group in english and their vietnamese equivalents

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

PHAN THỊ THÙY NINH

SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF THE
“LIKING” VERB GROUP IN ENGLISH AND THEIR
VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS
(ĐẶC ĐIỂM CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA NHÓM ĐỘNG
TỪ LIKING TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG
TIẾNG VIỆT)

M.A. THESIS
Field: English Language
Code: 8220201

Hanoi, 2018


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

PHAN THỊ THÙY NINH

SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF THE
“LIKING” VERB GROUP IN ENGLISH AND THEIR
VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS
( ĐẶC ĐIỂM CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA NHÓM ĐỘNG
TỪ LIKING TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG
TIẾNG VIỆT)

Field: English Language
Code: 8220201
Supervisor:Assoc. Prof. Dr. Phan Văn Quế

Hanoi, 2018


CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY
I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled
“SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF THE LIKING VERB GROUP
AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS” submitted in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the degree of Master in English Language. Except where the
reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due
acknowledgement in the text of the thesis.

Hanoi, 2018

Phan Thi Thuy Ninh

Approved by
SUPERVISOR

Phan Văn Quế
Date:……………………

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
During the whole process of conducting this study for her MA thesis, the

writer has received the support as well as encouragement from a number of people.
Thus, it will probably be an unacceptable mistake if this invaluable contribution to
the accomplishment of this thesis is not mentioned.
First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Assoc.
Prof. Dr Phan Van Que, my supervisor, who has patiently and constantly supported
me through the periods of the study, and whose stimulating ideas, expertise, and
suggestion have inspired me greatly through my growth as an academic researcher.
My special word of thanks goes to all the lecturers in the Faculty of
Postgraduate Studies, Hanoi Open University for their very useful and interesting
lecturers which have laid the foundation for my thesis.
Last but not least, my sincere thanks are delivered to my beloved family and friends,
who unlimited love and support enabled me to complete this paper.

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ABSTRACT
This present thesis aims at dealing with investigating syntactic and semantic
features of the LIKING verb group and their Vietnamese equivalents. The methods
selected to analyze the syntactic and semantic features are Descriptive method (to
describe liking verb group in terms of their structures and meanings to draw some
conclusions on the syntactic and semantic features), and Contrastive method (to
detect the similarities and differences in the syntactic and semantic features of
liking verb group in English and Vietnamese). The data were collected from five
bilingual novels and short stories. From theses novels and short stories, 96 examples
are quoted, analyzed and used as the chief source for the qualitative evidence. The
received result is that, in terms of syntactic features , this verb group is used in only
three sentence patterns (SVO, SVOC, SVOA) among seven sentence patterns; in
terms of semantics, the liking verb group can be used with a variety of meaning in
Vietnamese. Theoretically, the study will provide a comprehensive and overall

knowledge about the syntactic and semantic feature of the LIKING verb group in
English. Moreover, the similarities and differences between this verb group in
English and In Vietnamese are very helpful in contrasting two languages.
Practically, the study will help the Vietnamese learners of English as foreign
language use the English LIKING verbs effectively in daily communication. It also
helps the Vietnamese teachers teach the syntax and semantics of the liking verb
group flexibly and sufficiently. The findings of the study is hopefully to be
beneficial to those who are engaged in teaching English as well as those who want
to learn English as foreign language.

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
Co

Object complement

Cs

Subject complement

E.g

For example

i.e

That is

NP

Noun phrase

O

Object

Oi

Indirect object

Od

Direct object

S

Subject

V

Verb

*

Wrong sentence

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LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1

The chief semantic function for each clause type.

Table 4.1: The sentence patterns of the Liking verb group

13
25

Table 4.2: The English Liking verb group and their Vietnamese Equivalent in term
of semantic feature.

47

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Certificate of originality
Acknowledgements
Abstract
List of abbreviations
List of tables
Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Rationale

i
ii

iii
iv
v
1
1

1.2

2

Aims and objectives of the study

1.3 Research questions

2

1.4 Method of the study

2

1.5 Scope of the study

3

1.6 Significance of the study

3

1.7 Design of the study

3

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Previous studies
2.2 An overview of syntax and semantics
2.3 Overview of English verbs
2.3.1 Definition of the verb
2.3.2 Classification of English verbs

5
5
6
7
7
9

2.4 Overview of Vietnamese verbs
2.4.1 Definition of Vietnamese verbs
2.4.2 Classification of English verbs
2.5 Overview of the Liking verb group in English and in Vietnamese
2.5.1Overview of the Liking verb group in English

10
11
11
12
12

2.5.2Overview of the Liking verb group in Vietnamese
2.6 Summary

14
14

Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY
3.1 Setting of the study
3.2 Research questions
3.3 Research methods

16
16
16
16

3.4 Data collection and data analysis

17

3.5 Summary

18

Chapter 4: A COMPARISON BETWEEN ENGLISH LIKING VERB GROUP
AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS
19

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4.1 Syntactic features of Liking verb group in English

4.1.1 In terms of their sentence pattern
4.1.2 In terms of their sentence elements

19
19
21

4.1.2.1 Subject
21
4.1.2.2 Verb
21
4.1.1.3 Object
25
4.2 Semantic features of Liking verb group in English
26
4.3 A comparison between English Liking verb group and their Vietnamese
equivalents.
4.3.1 In terms of their syntactic features
4.3.1.1 In terms of their sentence pattern
4.3.1.2 In terms of their sentence elements

31
31
31
35

4.3.1.2.1 Subject
4.3.1.2.2 Object

35

36

4.3.2 In terms of their semantic features
4.4 Implication for teaching and learning Liking verb group in English
4.5 Summary

36
48
49

Chapter 5: CONCLUSION
5.1 Conclusion remarks
5.2 Limitations of the research

50
50
51

5.3 Suggestions for further research.
REFERENCES
APPENDIX

52

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Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Rational

Nowadays, English is regarded as the language of modernization and
technological advancement all over the world. Learning English is also problematic
for native speakers in general and foreign learners in particular because they are
affected by their mother tongue during the process of studying grammar,
vocabulary, spelling, pronunciation, etc.
On grammatical aspect, verbs have always been one of the most complex
class words. Verb is perhaps the most important part of the sentence. A verb states
what is happening in the sentence. There are many verbs in English and the Liking
verbs play an important role in the sentence. However in communication, we have
difficulties in expressing our ideas, especially in transferring of words from a
language to another one, in our case from English to Vietnamese.
There have been a lot of researchers conducting investigations into the
liking verb group in both English and Vietnamese: in English R.M.W. Dixon
(1991), Gilbert Ryle (2009), Concept of Mind, Beth Levin (1993), English Verb
class and alternations, and in Vietnamese, Hoang Tue (1962), Giáo trình Việt Ngữ,
Nguyễn Kim Thản (1977), Động từ trong tiếng Việt, Hoàng Phê (1998), Vietnamese
dictionary. These studies thoroughly describe about the semantic features of Liking
verbs group but they have not been exploited in term of syntactic features yet.
Moreover, the equivalents between two languages English and Vietnamese has not
been implemented yet.
This study appeared as a result of difficulties that author faces in daily
teaching related to the usage of these verbs. Theoretically, the problem is that how
to make sentence having the verb like, enjoy, love, admire, prefer, dislike, hate,
regret, fear and in which patterns are used. Practically, translators are confused
when choosing these verbs to make English sentences and translate it into
Vietnamese. From these above reasons, the topic “Syntactic and semantic
features of the Liking verb group in English and their Vietnamese equivalents”
has been chosen. Hopeful, the result of the study will be useful for learners of

1

English and Vietnamese and contribute a small part into the teaching and learning
English as a foreign language in Vietnam.
1.2 Aims and objectives of the study
The study is expected to provide Vietnamese learners with a description of
syntactic and semantic characteristics of English liking verb group and their
Vietnamese equivalents.
In order to achieve the aims, the following objectives are put forward:
- Pointing syntactic and semantic features of liking verb group in English.
- Finding the similarities and differences between English liking verb group
and their Vietnamese equivalents.
- Suggesting some implications for teaching and learning English liking
verb group in English and Vietnamese.
1.3 Research questions
In general, with the aims and the objectives above, the following research
questions will be addressed:
- What are the syntactic and semantic features of liking verb group in
English?
- What are the similarities and differences between liking verb group in
English and their Vietnamese equivalents in terms of in the syntactic and semantic
features?
- What are possible implications for teaching and learning English liking
verb group?
1.4 Methods of the study
The study is planned to describe and analyze some syntactic and semantic
features of the LIKING verb group in English as well as their Vietnamese
equivalents. To meet the demand of the objectives, this study is going to choose
English as the source language and Vietnamese, as the target one.
The methods used in this study include descriptive and contrastive analysis

ones.
The descriptive method is exploited to search for the syntactic and semantic
features of the liking verb group in English. Besides, the contrastive analysis
method is useful to uncover the Vietnamese equivalents of these nine English verbs

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with different senses. In particular, the data were collected from five novels and
short stories, and dictionaries.
The verbs are analyzed in detail beginning with like followed by enjoy, love,
admire, prefer, hate, dislike, fear, regret. Each of these verbs is described in a
separate section, and the analysis was conducted with a view to discovering such
aspects of each verb as its syntactic, semantics performed by each of these verbs.
The analysis is believed to contribute to a deeper understanding of the nine English
verbs. The componential analysis will be applied to analyze the data.
1.5 Scope of the study
It is unfeasible to discuss the Liking verb group in details. Therefore, within
the study the author focuses on analyzing them (concerning syntactic and semantic
features of these verbs) and just brief the similarities and differences between them.
The relevant data are taken from five English novels, short stories and their
Vietnamese translational versions. From theses novels and short stories, 99
examples are quoted, analyzed and used as the chief source for the qualitative
evidence.
On this basis, some suggestions for Vietnamese teachers and translators are
proposed to support their using the LIKING verb group more effectively.
1.6 Significance of the study
Theoretically, the study will provide a comprehensive and overall
knowledge about the syntactic and semantic feature of the LIKING verb group in
English. Moreover, the similarities and differences between this verb group in

English and in Vietnamese are very helpful in contrasting two languages.
Practically, the study will help the Vietnamese learners of English as foreign
language use the English LIKING verbs effectively in daily communication. The
findings of the study is hopefully to be beneficial to those who are engaged in
teaching English as well as those who want to learn English as foreign language.
1.7 Design of the study
This study consists of five chapters namely: Introduction, Literature review
and theoretical background, Methodology, Findings and Discussion, and
Conclusion, of which major contents are as follow:

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Chapter 1, Introduction, gives the reasons why this topic : “The syntactic and
semantic features of the LIKING verb group in English and their Vietnamese
equivalents’ has been chosen for the study as well as its aims and objectives, scope,
significance and organization of the study.
Chapter 2, Literature review, presents an overview of the previous studies related
to the LIKING verb group both in English and Vietnamese and a review of
theoretical background that can be considered as a foundation for conducting the
whole study.
Chapter 3, Methodology, shows some issues of methods and outline the research
design, data collection instruments, procedure of data collection.
Chapter 4, Finding and Discussion, presents the syntactic and semantic features of
liking verb group in English and Vietnamese and find out the similarities and
differences between them.
Chapter 5, Conclusion, summarises the whole content of the study, indicating the
limitation, thus giving some recommendation and suggestions for further research.
References come at the end of the study.

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Chapter 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Previous studies
English verbs have been the subject of several studies by linguists because
they present particularly interesting syntactic and semantic characteristics. In
particular, even if that are often considered as being a coherent semantic class, we
can find verbs displaying different semantic features and syntactic behavior.
In English, Dixon (1991) has a study on semantic types of words and
grammatical word classes. Bases on semantic roles, he classifies verbs into two sort:
primary and secondary sort. As stated in the A New Approach to English Grammar
on Semantic Principles, he mentioned the primary – B verbs including 10 verb
groups. Among this verb group, he claims there are nine verbs: like, love, hate,
prefer, fear, dislike, admire, regret, enjoy in the liking verb group. Beth Levin
(1993), also has a study on semantic types of verb class. In English Verb class and
alternations, he claimed that the verbs like, enjoy, love, admire, prefer belong to
positive admire verb and fear, hate, dislike, regret are the negative admire verbs.
Angela Downing and Philip Locke (2002) agree that the liking verb group is mental
process with two semantic roles. These studies mention to the verb groups based on
the semantic relations but not syntactic relations.
In Vietnamese, Nguyen Kim Than (1977) examines the Vietnamese verbs
on the grammatical features in his study. As he also gives a list of liking verb group
including thích, yêu, ghét, muốn, ng−ìng mé, sợ hãi, không thích, tiếc,… Le Bien
(1999), the Vietnamese liking verbs are state verbs belonging to independent verbs
However, both the studies still do not mention to the semantic features of the liking
verbs yet.
In brief, there above works all study on the liking verb group in the semantic
features or on their denoting meanings, there is not any researches on the liking verb

group in both syntactic and semantic features and in comparison between English
and Vietnamese equivalents as well as. From these reason, the study on semantic
syntactic and semantic features of the liking verb group in English and in
Vietnamese equivalents has been chosen, with the hope that this research can partly

5


facilitate teachers, and translators to be more awarded of the meanings and sentence
patterns including the liking verb group.
2.2 An overview of syntax and semantics
Firstly, syntax is defined as a set of rules in language. It dictates how words
from different parts of speech put together with the aim of conveying a complete
thought. According to R.M.W. Dixon (1991), syntax deals with the way in which
words are combined together. Syntax is considered to be the theory of the structure
of sentence in a language. Verbs are different grammatical properties from language
to language but there is always a major class verb, which includes word referring to
motion, rest, notice, giving, speaking, and liking.
According to Bloomfield (1993), “We could not understand the form of a
language if we merely reduced all the complex forms to their ultimate constituents”.
He pointed that in order to account for the meaning of a sentence, it is necessary to
recognize how individual constituents such words and morpheres constitute more
complex forms.
Linda Thomas (1993) states that language are by nature extremely complex
and describing a language, any language is not an easy task. Syntax seeks to
describe the way words fit together form sentence or utterances.
Syntax is now the study of the principles and rules that govern the ways in
which words are combined to form phrase, clauses and sentences in a language.
Syntax, which is a subfield of grammar, focuses on the word order of a language
and relationships between words. In other words, morphology deals with word

formation out of morphemes whereas syntax deals with phrase and sentence
formation out of words. Every language has a limited number of syntactic relations.
Subject and object are probably universal of syntactic relations, which apply to
every language. However, just as the criteria for the major words class noun and
verb differ from language to language, so do the ways in which syntactic relations
are marked.
Secondly, semantics is a branch of linguistics, which deals with meaning or
contents of communication. Hurford and Heasley (1983) state that “semantics is the
study of meaning in language.” Language is a mean of communication and used to
communicate with others by making conversations, giving information and other

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things to make social relationship. Human beings have been given the ability to talk,
to communicate with each other, to make meaning utterances, so that they are
understood by other human beings.
Semantics defined in “The study of language” by George Yule is the study
of the meaning of words, phrases and sentences. In semantic analysis, there is
always an attempt to focus on what the words conventionally mean, rather than on
what a speaker might want the words to mean on a particular occasion. Also,
linguistic semantics deals with the conventional meaning conveyed by the use of
words and sentences of a language.
Semantics is usually connected with pragmatics Cernap (Lyons, 1977) says
that descriptive semantics (i.e the investigation of the meaning of expression in
“historically given natural language”) may be considered as part of pragmatics.
The reason why descriptive semantics is part of pragmatics seem to have been that
he believed that difference in the use of particular expressions were not only
inevitable in language - behavior, but must be taken account of in the description or
content.

According to David Crystal (2008) expresses his study as follow: Semantics
is a branch of linguistics devoted to the study of meaning in language. In particular,
the approach called structural semantics applies the principles of structural
linguistics to the study of meaning through the notion of semantics relations
between lexical items. In generative grammar, the semantic component is a major
area of the organization of a grammar, which assigns a semantic representation to a
sentence and analyses lexical items of semantics features.
In brief, semantics is one of the most fundamental concepts in linguistics.
The theory of semantic field includes the study of how meaning is constructed,
interpreted, clarified, covered, illustrated, simplified, negotiated, contradicted and
paraphrased.
Theory of syntax and semantics is carried out first with main purpose to
decide the theoretical framework of the study in the chapter three.
2.3 Overview of English verbs
2.3.1 Definition of the verb

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The Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
(2010) defines verb is a word which occurs as part of the predicate of a sentence
carries markers of grammatical categories such as tense, aspect, person, number and
mood, and refers to an action or state.
For example:
He closed the door.
Jane likes swimming.
Borahash (1975) defines that the verb is a part of speech denoting an action
or a process.
According to Jack C. Richards & et al (1992), a word is a verb when it
satisfies these following criteria: occurs as a part of predicate of sentence; carries

markers of grammatical categories such as tense, aspect, person, number and mood,
and refers to an action or state.
As stated by R.M.W Dixon (1991), the definition of English verb is “A verb
is the center of a clause”. A verb refers to some activity and there must be a number
of participants who have roles in that activity as Sinbad carried the old man; or it
may refer to a state, and there must be a participant to experience the state as: My
leg aches.
A set of verb groups is grouped together as one semantic type partly because they
required the same set of participant roles. All liking verbs require an Experiencer, a
Stimulus as in:
Fred likes proposal.
(R.M.W. Dixon, 1991: 156)
Mary hates riding horses.
(R.M.W. Dixon, 1991: 260)
According to David Crystal (2008), verb is a term used in the grammatical
classification of words, to refer to a class traditionally defined as doing or action
words. The formal definition of a verb refers to an element which can display
morphological contrasts of tense, aspect, voice, mood, person and number.
Functionally, it is the element which, singly or in combination with other verbs as a
verb phrase, is used as the minimal predicate of a sentence, co- occurring with a
subject. (for example: he / laughed). If the predicate contains other elements ( e.g.

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object, complement, adverbial), then it is the verb which more than any other is the
unit which influences the choice and extent of these elements; (e.g. the verb put
takes both an object and a locative adverbial, as in he put the book on the table.). In
many grammatical theories, accordingly, the verb is considered the most important
element in sentence structure.

2.3.2 Classification of English Verbs
There are many different classifications of an English verb depending on
different categories.
In “A new approach to English grammar on semantics principles”, R.M.W.
Dixon states that verbs fall into board subclasses- those that require only one role
(intransitive verb) and those which require two or more roles (transitive verbs).
There is considerable difference between intransitive subject and transitive subject.
In term of the function within the verb phrase, R. Quirk et al (1985) states
that verbs are divided into open class of full verbs ( or lexical verbs such as leave)
and closed classes ( be, have, do) of primary verbs and of modal auxiliary verbs
(will, might). Of these three classes, the full verbs can act only as main verbs, the
modal auxiliaries can act only as auxiliary verbs, and the primary verbs can act
either as main verbs or as auxiliary verbs.
In term of sentence patterns, R. Quirk et al (1985) classify verbs into two
types: intensive verbs and extensive verbs.
Intensive verbs are also called copular verbs, and they are usually followed
by a noun, or a noun phrase, and adjective or prepositional phrase. Intensive verbs
are used to describe the subject. It means that the focus is on one thing, the subject
only. Intensive verbs appear in the structure SVC or SVA. Words or phrases, which
are followed by an intensive verb works as the subject compliment and they apply
to the subject, not the verb. Let’s consider the following examples:
The country became totally independent. (SVC)
I have been in the garden. (SVA)
(Quirk, Randolph, 1985:53)
Extensive verbs are most other verbs, they do not have subject compliment.
Extensive verbs are used to say what the subject is doing. It covers a wider area; it
takes the information away from the subject. Words or phrases, which are followed

9

by an extensive verb work as the verb’s object. They apply to the verb, not the
subject as in:
He stayed very quite.
(Quirk, Randolph, 1985:55)
Extensive verbs include three subclasses: monotransitive, complex transitive
and ditransitive.
Ditransitive verbs are verbs which take a subject and two objects and have
structure “SVOO”. According to certain linguistic considerations, these objectives
may be called direct, indirect objectives, or primary and secondary objectives as in
the following examples:
We all wish you a happy birthday.(SVOO)
(Quirk, Randolph, 1985:56)
In contrast, mono transitive verbs take only one object and appear in the
structure SVO as in the following examples:
Elizabeth enjoys classical music. (SVO)
(Quirk, Randolph, 1985:56)
Verb requires both a direct object, another object and an object complement
or an adverbial is complex transitive verbs. Complex transitive verbs appear in the
structure SVOC or SVOA. In a complex- transitive construction, the object
complement identifies a quality or attributes pertaining to the direct object. Let’s
consider the following examples:
The president declared the meeting open. (SVOC)
The doorman showed the guests into drawing room. (SVOA)
(Quirk, Randolph, 1985:56)
2.4 Overview of the Vietnamese verbs
Up to now, there has been a vast amount of research on the linguistic field
in Vietnamese grammar and parts of speech. Vietnamese is an isolating and analytic
language in which grammatical meanings are shown chiefly through word order and
function words (grammatical words). Also, Vietnamese words have the same forms

in different positions in sentences. As a result, several grammatical structures are
similar in form- organization but different in grammatical meanings.
For example:

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Tôi đi làm bằng xe máy. (I go to work by motorbike.)
Hôm qua tôi đi làm bằng xe máy. (Yesterday, I went to work by
motorbike.)
In contrast with verbs in English, verbs in Vietnamese do not have the
concord with other parts of speech. In other words, they are not affected by number,
gender, mood, voice, and tense. In Vietnamese, a sentence refers to the basic time of
the context- that is the time which has been made clear in the context up to that
point. In addition, when playing function as central components before it to indicate
scope of the action or activity such as cũng, đều, cứ, etc. to indicate continuation
like còn, vẫn, etc.; to indicate tense, aspect such as sắp, đang, sẽ, đã, etc.; to refer to
negative meaning, for example: chưa, không, chẳng, etc.; to indicate advice of
prohibit such as: hãy, đừng, chớ, and so on. However, as Cao Xuan Hao suggested,
such auxiliary components, especially sắp, đang, sẽ, đã should be used with great
care because in some cases these auxiliaries do not at all indicate tense. For
instances, a soldier reunited with his family for five days, and the next day when he
had to come back to his military unit. His wife said to him: Ngày mai anh đã đi rôì
à, đã here does not indicate tense; it just helps to show regret. Obviously, in
Vietnamese, context holds the key factor to define tense of the verbs.
2.4.1 Definition of Vietnamese verbs
According to Le Bien (1990:70), and Diep Quang Ban (2001:21),
Vietnamese verbs are substantives referring to progress, forms of movements. They
may be activities (1), states (2), changing progress (3), and movement (4), etc.
For example: (1) Cô ấy đọc sách.

(2) Nó nhớ nhà.
(3) GS Ngô Bảo Châu đã trở thành nhà bác học nổi tiếng thế giới.
(4) Bạn tôi đi thành phố Hồ Chí Minh rồi.
2.4.2 Classification of Vietnamese Verbs
With regards to linguistics, there have been many different ways to classify
verbs in each language by different authors. However, the classification of the verbs
by Diep Quang Ban and Hoang Van Thung will be applied in this thesis. The two
linguistics study and classify Vietnamese verbs into two kinds: independent verbs
and dependent verbs. The independent verbs are verbs followed by a direct object

11


(thing or person that receives the action of the verb). The independent verbs cannot
stand alone to complete the meaning of the sentences including these verbs. Let’s
see the following example:
Lan đưa tôi cuèn sách.
Tôi yêu Hà Nội.
In contrast, dependent verbs stand alone in a sentence without any help
verbs. For example: Trời mưa, cô ấy hát, etc. However, some verbs can be both
dependent verbs or independent verbs depending the way they are used, such as the
verbs “có” and “làm”, let’s see the following examples:
Bác có tiền không? - Tôi có.
In each major type, he subdivides them based on several factors. The
independent verb is divided into modal, relation subtypes and the dependent verb is
classified into verbs followed adjunct, notional words.
2.5 Overview of the LIKING verb group in English and in Vietnamese
2.5.1 Overview of the LIKING verb group in English
Regarding to clause types, Quirk et al (1985: 53) state that the liking verb
group belong to transitive verbs. Quirk et al claim that the term transitive is often

applied to all verbs which required an object, including those of clause types SVO,
SVOO, SVOC and SVOA. The patterns below give a further classification. In
clauses, the liking verb group can be monotransitive verbs, ditransitive verbs or
complex transitive verbs.
In a sentence (a simple sentence or multiple sentence), a verb belongs to the
liking verb group must be followed by a direct object.
For example:
She likes expensive present. (SVO)
Furthermore, Quirk et al (1985:754) gives the semantic functions of the
elements S, O in sentence patterns having the liking verb group as following:

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Table 2.1: The chief semantic function for each clause type.
(Quirk, Randolph, 1985: 754)
Type

S

Oi

SVO

agentive

Od

Cs

Co

recipient/

A

Example
He threw the ball

affected
SVOC recipient

affected

SVOA recipient

affected

attribute

I found it strange
locative I prefer them on
toast.

On the semantic aspect, Angela Downing and Philip Locke (2002) agree
that the liking verb group is mental process with two semantic roles:
Example:
Jill
Experiencer

liked

the present. (p140)

Process

Phenomenon

The Experiencer is the participant who sees, feels, thinks, likes, etc., and is
typically human, but may also be an animal or even a personified inanimate object
(The rider heard a noise, the horse sensed danger, your car knows what it needs).
The second participant in a mental process, that which is perceived, known,
liked, etc., is called the Phenomenon. Mental processes are typically stative and
non-volitional.
Mental processes can sometimes be expressed with the Phenomenon filling
the Subject slot and the Experiencer as Object, although not necessarily by means of
the same verb.
R.M.Dixon (1991) states that verb from liking verb group has two core roles
being mapped onto transitive object, for example:
Fred likes the proposal.
Experiencer

Stimulus

In the two semantic roles, the subject- transitive is Experiencer, the object is
Stimulus, and these verbs are transitive verbs which must have NPs.

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2.5.2 Overview of the Liking verb group in Vietnamese
According to Le Bien (1999), the Vietnamese liking verbs are independent
verbs which cannot used to make a full sentence itself without any other help verbs.
He also gives structure of the liking verbs in sentence.
A-V-A1
(A are nouns or pronouns, V is verb, and A1 is thing or people)
Example:
Tôi yêu con trai bé bỏng của tôi
In this structure, it requires one complement. He gives the list of liking
verbs such as: yêu, thích, muốn, ghét, thích hơn, tiếc…...
According to Nguyen Kim Than (1977), the liking verbs belong to group
5, verbs of emotion. This kind of verb often combines with adverb lai. Let’s see the
examples:
Ô-tên- lô cũng yêu lại nàng.
Em thương anh ruột thắt gan bào
Biết anh có thương em lại chút nào không?
He also gives structure of the liking verbs in sentence.
(1) N1 V N2

Nam yêu tranh

(2) N2 do N1 V
(3) N2 mà N1 V

Cái tranh mà Nam yêu

(4) N2, N1 cũng V

Tranh, Nam cũng yêu.

He gives the list of liking verbs such as: yêu, thích, ton hót, mến, thương,
dọa, mặc kệ, ghét...
2.6 Summary
In this chapter, the Literature Review include previous studies, review of
theoretical background. In the previous studies, the studies of authors in oversea and
Vietnam are given. In the theoretical background, theory of syntax and semantics
are analyzed thoroughly in order to use for the background of analyzing the
syntactic and semantic features of the LIKING verbs in English.

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Moreover, the definition of the verb and classification of verb are point out
in details. Finally, theoretical background is given briefly reviewed what has been
found and discussed the related studies by describing their approaches and key
finding, but then identify weaknesses in the approach and limitations in the finding.

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CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
In order to fulfill the aim of the study, some pedagogical implications, this
chapter deals with the study of the thesis, the date and methods. It focuses on the
data collection. This chapter is carried out with a view to mapping out the ways to
conduct the whole study.
3.1 Setting of the study
This thesis is conducted by using various sources as well as applying the
physical, social, and cultural site in each part of the research. Normally, it is
realized that the students easily make mistakes when they use the LIKING verbs
because they do not know which verbs should be chosen in different contexts. So,

this study is carried out through dictionaries, encyclopedia, reference books at
library and on some websites to help the teachers and learners more clearly about
the differences in syntax as well as in semantics between the LIKING verbs in
English and their Vietnamese equivalents
3.2 Research questions
To achieve the aims and objectives of the thesis, the following questions are
put forward:
1. What are the syntactic and semantic features of liking verb group in English?
2. What are the similarities and differences in the syntactic and semantic features of
liking verb group in English and their Vietnamese equivalents?
3. What are possible implications for teaching and learning English liking verb
group?
3.3 Research methods
This study is designed and investigated the syntactic and semantic features
of the LIKING verbs in English with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents, so
the descriptive and comparative method is chosen. This study analyzes and
synthesizes to some syntactic, semantic features of the LIKING verbs in English and
their Vietnamese equivalents. Therefore, in the process of the study, the LIKING
verbs are main sources for the research, so English is considered the source
language, and Vietnamese is the target one.

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